The transformation of Darius Boyd

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To be perfectly honest for the first three years that I played alongside him at the Broncos I didn't know the real Darius Boyd.

He came to the club as an 18-year-old and being the shy guy that 'Darbs' is we probably didn't speak a lot for those first three years.

We have all become aware in the past 18 months of the difficulties Darbs went through growing up and early on you could sense that he was scared to let people in close to him.

He's got a great story from where he's come from to where he is today and being an ex-teammate and a mate of his it's so pleasing to see how happy he is now.

After Origin III in 2014 Darbs had another run-in with the media in front of the team hotel and while as Queensland teammates we could see that he was struggling, the best thing was that he admitted to himself that he had a problem.

He's a guy that wanted to make himself better and he's a prime example for young kids coming through the game. If they've got issues they need to come forward and get help, whether it is to do with alcohol, gambling or whatever it is. We need to make them feel more comfortable in coming forward and getting help because it's only going to make them better.

The change in Darbs when he came back to the Broncos at the end of 2014 was incredible. He came back as a different person, and not just in the way he spoke to the media and the way he spoke to the boys but you could see it in his face.

For a long time we didn't know about his upbringing so we just assumed that he was a quiet sort of a kid but as the years went on and he started doing stuff with the media you could see that he had issues with letting people get too close to him.

He didn't want to let people into his personal life because at that stage he hadn't dealt with the issues that he had.

You look at the guy now and he's a lot more trusting and knows the media is not against him, that everyone is here to help him and try and promote the game.

Such has been the change in Darbs over the past couple of years that I have no doubt he would be a wonderful captain for the Broncos and would have been an excellent choice even this year.

From where he's come from his leadership over the past year has been unbelievable and I know the players love him and respect him. As a leader that's what you need, you need your teammates to love and respect you because they're the ones you need to follow you on the footy field.

You can just see the way the guys swarm around him and interact with him because he has got so much knowledge of the game and Darbs is one of those players that cares for his teammates as well.Corey Parker is a great fit for the club and Darbs might be the captain next year and beyond but I think he is a guy who is really ready and I thought he would have been a great role model for our club.

Understanding obstruction

I don't have an answer for how to make the obstruction rule easier to understand and officiate but as a player you know when you have stuffed up and when you are in the wrong position.

There's no way that the Michael Morgan try against the Broncos two weeks ago should have been disallowed. There are a lot of tries that are disallowed now but you know as a player when someone has made a bad defensive read and when someone has actually been impeded.

Players will never put their hand up and admit that they have made a mistake and given the referees have such a short amount of time to rule on it it's not surprising that things get confusing.

The block plays that so many teams now run are what create opportunities out wide and are a great way of showcasing the great lines that many back-rowers run and that skill should be rewarded just like anything else.

Those lines that create those opportunities are run perfectly and we've got to reward that because sometimes you get a smart player who knows how to run a great line and it creates that overlap which creates a try.

It's a really hard problem to try and fix but we do need to look at it because some of the decisions lately are taking away those great lines that back-rowers run.